New dean should embody core values
Sitting outside the Ronald Tutor Campus Center, we randomly selected five students in the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, and asked them if they could name their dean. Only one could.
Dornsife students don’t know their dean, but — because this figure plays such a pivotal role in the direction of the College — they should.
In Fall 2016, incoming freshmen in Dornsife will likely be welcomed by a new dean at convocation. This new dean will serve as the leader of the University’s largest school, tasked with overseeing every facet of Dornsife — from student and faculty recruitment to budget management and fundraising.
The dean’s role isn’t a major part of the day-to-day student experience right now, but this needs to change — starting with the selection of the new dean. As the University begins its search, a student voice will be integral in ensuring the next dean meets the needs of the entire campus community. The University should choose a dean who will remain accountable to students and embody the principles of the University.
University administration will most likely be primarily concerned with the role of Dornsife’s new dean in the University’s $6 billion fundraising campaign. And while we need a dean who is willing to recognize the importance of this campaign as well as someone who has the skills necessary to meet the University’s fundraising goals, we also want the new dean to remain transparent and accessible to students.
Dornsife offers 79 majors and 69 minors in several diverse disciplines, including the natural sciences, humanities and social sciences. The intellectual diversity, coupled with the sheer number of Dornsife students — more than 10,000 to be precise — present several challenges that the new dean must address. The new dean should, for example, work to improve academic advising and the quality of career and academic services.
Additionally, the dean should remain faithful to the core values of the University — including diversity. The new dean should look to improve diversity on an institutional level and, as the highest administrative figure involved in hiring decisions, work to ensure the hiring of women and faculty of color. And in light of recent campus discussions, the dean should make clear to students that diversity is a priority.
Over the past decade, the deans of the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences have been plagued with high turnover. Current Dornsife Dean Steve Kay joined the college just three years ago, his predecessor Howard Gillman stayed for five years and Gillman’s predecessor, Peter Starr, served as interim dean for one year. It does both the college and its students a great disservice to have a trend of ever-changing leadership.
But this doesn’t have to be the norm. At other colleges in the University, the dean has occupied a larger presence. For example, in the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, Dean Ernest J. Wilson III has consistently led the school through a number of large-scale changes, many of which may not have been possible without his longstanding leadership. Choosing a dean who is willing to remain with the University in the long term is the only way Dornsife students will see continuous progress.
Once the new dean is chosen, the onus is on the University to keep the dean involved with students and to ensure student input is helping to drive the vision of the College. As the University begins its search for Dornsife’s next leader, it must look for someone who will be more to students than just the signature at the bottom of a campus-wide memo.